Useful Tips

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by Stryder, Dec 29, 2001.

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  1. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    Okay, I think there should be a thread for tips of how to tweak certain sections of your Operating system (Be it what ever) So I'm going to place one in here

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    <HR>
    Deleting Temporary files on bootup - win9x

    Quite simply, windows has a temporary folder that installations use and programs like Winzip. If you don't clean your temp folder then you can run out of hard-drive space and sometimes installations can suffer errors (Through using older files for installation) So it makes it a good idea to delete the files in your temp folders.

    The next line though is Ideal for adding to your AUTOEXEC.BAT

    @C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DELTREE /Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\

    This will mean on boot the TEMP folder is emptied.
    <HR>

    Registery programs - Windows OS

    I'm a gluton for playing in the registery, sometimes it's necessary to remove unwanted things in your Add/Remove programs registery and other times it's a good idea to clean up a key that some old uninstalled program left. (sometimes you can even spot trojan entries)

    I always find it useful to have on the desktop REGEDIT.exe and SCANREG.exe, so you have to create a shortcut to them, they can both be found in your WINDOWS (or equivalent) Folder.

    It's a very good idea to export your Registery to a .REG file, these can then be edited or used to restore your system if you should alter something at a later date.

    (There is actually a method of writing .REG files by hand for adding keys , very useful for some manovres, for instance my movement of a Full install of Starcraft/Broodwar across a network to another PC. I had to then track down the starcraft/broodwar registers and write them to a .REG file, this means that I could then re-register the folders/files/game on the other computer, and can play with my Broodwar Cd. (because my mate has still to return Starcraft)

    I'll think of some more (Possible find some too on my travels)
     
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  3. Rick Valued Senior Member

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    Format not required...

    incase you want to format your floppy do this for faster format:

    c:\windows>copy con a.bat
    @echo off
    a:
    attrib -h c:\*.*
    deltree /y
    ctrl+z

    then whenever you"ll want to format type "a" and thats it...

    incase you"re planning to change that stupid start buttons name that looks soooo...... boring......

    open registry by issuing regedit.exe command.now search for -70 explorer.exe line no 2390 and modify the string by changing its value to something ya want,i hav named as zion...

    for Win 98 users add perfect security for mult users...
    rename Win.com file as anything...

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    bye!
     
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  5. Rick Valued Senior Member

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    Security tips

    if you"re a security freak then you may take a look at this...(this would help only C programmers,although)
    make this program and then make exe file of it and get it executed through autoexec.bat,that would ensure that pasword is checked everytime computer boots...

    #include"string.h"
    #include"dos.h"
    #include"stdio.h"
    #include"conio.h"
    #include"bios.h"
    void main()
    {
    void far (*p)();
    char actual_passwd[20]="A3J7m";
    char supplied_passwd[20],ch;
    int i=0;
    p=0xFFFF0000;
    clrscr();
    gotoxy(20,10);
    printf("ENTER THE PASSWORD");
    while(1)
    {
    ch=getch();
    if(ch=='\r')
    break;

    supplied_password=ch;
    i++;
    if(i==18)
    break;
    }
    supplied_passwd='\0';
    if(strcmp(actual_passwd,supplied_passwd)!=0)
    {
    puts("ILLEGAL PASSWORD"):
    delay(1000);
    (*p)(); /*here's where computer will reboot*/
    }
    }


    bye!
     
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  7. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    <HR>
    Fixing wrongly displayed RAM amount -Win9x

    This is one I had to deal with Today, I had a Pentium III 500Mhz system that suffered from and extreme case of the BSOD [Blue Screen of Death] Jitters, I Came up with the Prognosis that when the computer had been used as a fax machine and left on 24/7 the AGP usage of RAM caused it to become WARN and ERROR.

    On later inspection it was found that the RAM in the system was 64mb X 3 168pin ECC PC100 SDRAM DIMM, when I should have had PC133. (This meant I was using RAM that was being OVERCLOCKED)

    I Replaced all my RAM with 256mb x 3 168pin Non Parity PC133 SDRAM DIMM, and my system livened up, but my Systems info said that I only had 126mb of RAM. So I had to work out how to fix it.

    At first you have to check your CMOS/BIOS to see if your computer can take that amount of RAM (Mine could take 768mb being an A-BIT BH6 V1.0* MotherBoard)

    Windows 98 can only take 1.5Gb of RAM (2000 and XP are suppose to support far higher)

    Since I had upgraded, the Windows setting was different for the amount, So I had to open C:\Windows\SYSTEM.INI.
    Once editing it with a Textpad, I looked for the [386Enh] section, and placed a (;) Colon at infront of and at the start of the line of MaxPhysPage=

    Then I saved the file and rebooted, The amount now shows the true amount of memory.
     
  8. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,105
    <HR>
    Cascading Control Panel from Start Bar - Win9x

    Okay I found this one at:
    http://www.datacreek.com/design/tricks/fav98tips.html

    To cascade the Control Panel applets off your Start Menu:
    1. Right-click on the Start button and select Open.
    2. Create a new folder and call it
    Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
    Don't forget the period in the folder name!

    <HR>

    Changing BSOD(Blue screen of death) - Winxx

    This one I found at:
    http://snakefoot.fateback.com/tweak/win9x/tips.html
    Edit your SYSTEM.INI and update/add the following lines

    [386enh]
    ;COMMENT The following 2 lines makes the screen black and the text white
    MessageBackColor=0
    MessageTextColor=7

    Color codes to use(HEX)
    0 = black
    1 = blue
    2 = green
    3 = cyan
    4 = red
    5 = magenta
    6 = yellow/brown
    7 = white
    8 = gray
    9 = bright blue
    A = bright green
    B = bright cyan
    C = bright red
    D = bright magenta
    E = bright yellow
    F = bright white

    <HR>

    There is also a method of rewriting a Win98 Emergency Start disk to create you a DOS load up with a RAM disk, that can be kind of fun to play with. (And useful for creating tools for fixing computer systems)
     
  9. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    13,105
    I've written up a tutorial on RAM issues (Including those BSOD that people growl at and about.

    You can find it at:

    http://www.chatsoba.com/tutorial/bsod.html

    I hope it's as useful to others as it has been to a few people. (In fact my previous version of this data, actually made it to a Tech board without me knowing about it, someone found it in a Google search and thought it useful

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    )
     
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